Saturday, May 30, 2009

Dear Starbucks: I love you!

I have to say the month of May in Milledgeville has be pleasant. I've had lots of visits from my Randy, my Maymester class has been awesome, and I've made some tremendous new gluten-free friends here on the blog and on Twitter.

But the highlight of my month has been the introduction of the new Starbucks Gluten-Free Valencia Orange Cake, which, I gotta say it, I love. (And I apologize to Blackbird Coffee in Milledgeville for that, because you're my favorite coffee house. But you don't have a gluten-free cake for me, now do you? But I do love your coffee).

First, the whole cake is high in protein and has under 300 calories. (It is made almost entirely of eggs). Second, it isn't too sweet. Third, with the carb count, it really works okay for me as a meal (not a treat, mind you, as a meal). This post HERE has all the information on the new treat.

I also love that it is sold in individually wrapped packages, frozen. I often buy a four pack of them and take them home to my freezer. I try to stretch those four out for more than a week. At just under $8, it's really lovely.

It especially fits in well with my new eating plans. Of course, I have always lacked the baking gene anyway, with rare exception. This case is perfect for me in my world today. I could serve it to guests for dinner. I could HAVE it for dinner. Randy and Jeffrey game me two cakes for Mother's Day! Wonderful. Of course, the idea that I can go into a Starbucks with a non-GF friend and have a treat means a lot to me, too.

I simply enjoy it for so many reason.

But mostly, it reminds me of my Aunt Katie. She was really my Dad's cousin's wife, which makes her my what, second cousin"s wife, but anyway....I always called her Aunt Katie and called him Uncle Rudy. She taught at Avondale High School, and I'm mentioned here on the blog before -- They called her Mrs. Rudy, and she was a much loved home ec teacher. Anyway, the year after she retired, I hear they brought her out sitting in a rocking chair in a giant gift box at Homecoming. She was a wonderful person all around.

ANYWAY she made this cake every Christmas that she made in bite-sized mini cakes, and Uncle Rudy always delivered a tin of them to our house. We'd exchange tins, usually, with ours filled with Italian Anise Cookies (which today would be considered biscotti...but again...I'm digressing.

The annual Orange Blossom cake of my childhood is truly identical to the Starbucks GF Valencia Orange Cake. I mean, they bring be back. My Mama always kept those Orange Blossoms in the fridge, and when I eat the Starbucks Cake cold, it brings me back.

I couldn't be happier. Thank you, Starbucks, for listening to your GF community. Even if not everyone likes it, we LOVE that you've done this. So thanks. A lot.

Isn't it great to get gf products in mainstream businesses like Starbucks?! My coworker bought me one a few weeks back (she's super thoughtful, more then my immediate department coworkers!) and it just made my day!

I love it too! The first week they came out we had a band going away party with a big old gluten filled cake. Steve ran me by Starbucks and I ran in and got one to take to the band party so I could have cake too! So yummy. I don't like really sweet cake so I think it's perfect!